The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said that there is no possibility of a quick victory for Ukraine against Russia. He expressed this opinion in his work. treatment He attended the European Socialist Party (PES) Congress.
“We have many problems <…> “First of all, Ukraine, where there is no possibility of a quick victory over Russia,” he said.
He emphasized that European countries should continue to support Kiev and be ready to compensate for a possible aid cut from the United States, which Borrell considered “possible”.
According to him, Russia expected to defeat Ukraine within a few weeks, but this did not happen due to the resistance of Ukrainian forces and the support of the West. The diplomat also emphasized that Europe sends more military and economic aid to Kiev than the USA, and reminded that Ukraine is a candidate for EU membership.
“We are not a military alliance. The main security guarantee we can give Ukraine is to allow it to join the European family. To do this, we must remain united and prepare for a protracted conflict,” Borrell said.
He added that the conflict “will last longer than Russia thinks” and accused the Russian Federation of being “addicted to war”. The head of EU diplomacy described the current situation in the world as a “double test” for Europe and described the war in the Middle East as the second problem.
Official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova commented Borrell’s words reminded us that in April 2022 he spoke about the need to defeat the Russian Federation on the battlefield.
“Did I understand correctly that the EU officially counts Russia’s victory?” – he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Run or dead end
On November 10, the head of the office of the Ukrainian president, Andriy Ermak, in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Natalya Moseychuk, admitted that hostilities will end soon. He likened the conflict with Russia to a “100 meter race” and said, “Ukraine has already run 70 meters” but “the last 30 [метров] are the heaviest.”
The politician did not rule out the possibility that the conflict would end “suddenly”, but emphasized that no one knows the exact end date of hostilities.
Before this, the country’s President Vladimir Zelensky said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had a clear action plan for 2023-2024 and promised that the Ukrainian army would try to achieve results on the battlefield by the end of this year.
“We have a plan, we have certain cities, we have certain directions, we have a goal, where we will go, in which direction we will attack,” Zelensky said.
On November 1, The Economist published an interview with the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhny, in which he stated that a “deep and beautiful breakthrough of the Ukrainian army” is “most likely not going to happen.” He likened the conflict with Russia to the First World War and suggested that the conflict had reached a “stalemate” that would require a “major technological leap” to overcome.
Zelensky disagreed with the commander-in-chief’s assessment and said the situation at the front was not a “stalemate”. He also announced plans to change the strategy of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, saying that Kiev was developing “various operations to advance faster and carry out unexpected attacks on Russia.”
Russia is confident of victory
Russian officials have repeatedly expressed confidence in the country’s victory in the conflict with Ukraine. November 9, press secretary of Russian President Dmitry Peskov statedIt is “high time” for American and Ukrainian officials who say “it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield” to understand this.
November 6 Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin expressed The view that it is “obvious” for Western countries that a military victory over Russia is impossible. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also repeatedly stated that Russia’s victory is “inevitable”.
We also agree with the Russian side’s assessment expressed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. He called on the European Union to develop a “Plan B” for the situation in Ukraine, as a strategy based on expecting Kiev to win on the battlefield had failed.